Global Education | Brown University

Life at Brown | Brown University

About Brown | Brown University

Academics | Brown University

Academic Departments | Brown University

A-Z Directory | Brown University

Housing and Dining | Brown University

Graduate Admission | Brown University

Tuition and Aid | Brown University

News from Brown | Brown University

Lists (e.g., `<ul>` or `<ol>`) should only contain list items (`<li>`) as a direct descendant 
to ensure that screen readers can accurately report the amount of items contained in the list. 

## Example

In the following example, some screen readers would say this list has two items, instead of 
four: 

```html
<ul>
    <div class="some_class">
        <li>Example 1</li>
    </div>
    <div class="some_other_class">
        <li>Example 2</li>
        <li>Example 3</li>
        <li>Example 4</li>
    </div>
</ul>
```

To fix this, you would need to remove the `<div class="some_class">` and 
`<div class="some_other_class>` elements and ensure only `<li>` list items remain.

## Further reading

The [formal specification for the list element](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/ul)
shows what is and is not permitted inside an `<ul>` and `<ol>`.

See [Technique H88](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H88.html) for more information.

list-not-following-semantics

August 2025

July 2025

Brown University

Title / URL	Issues
Global Education \| Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/academics/global	1
Life at Brown \| Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/life-brown	1
About Brown \| Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/about	1
Academics \| Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/academics	1
Academic Departments \| Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/academics/departments	1
A-Z Directory \| Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/a-z	1
Housing and Dining \| Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/life-brown/housing-dining	1
Graduate Admission \| Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/admission/graduate	1
Tuition and Aid \| Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/admission/tuition-aid	1
News from Brown \| Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/news	1

Ensure lists are marked up correctly

Brown University

Where this issue has occurred